“We are doing it to honor our coach and teacher, to remember all of the things he taught us.”

Brady Haider

SOUTH JORDAN — They’ll gather this Friday night in the gymnasium where Randy Treglown taught them to be better players and inspired them to be better people.

Dozens of the longtime basketball coach’s former players will compete in a memorial alumni game at Elk Ridge Middle School Friday night as the players honor Treglown, who was killed Nov. 28 when he was hit by a car as he jogged to school.

“We are doing it to honor our coach and teacher,” said Brady Haider, one of the event’s organizers, “to remember all of the things he taught us.”

Organizers invite the community to the free event, which will pit players from the mid-1990s to early 2000s against a group of alumni from the most recent years. The older team will be coached by Randy’s son Ryan Treglown, while the younger team will be coached by Randy’s youngest son, Jordan. The players who organized the game are hoping the community will come out and enjoy a special evening to remember a special man.

“He meant so much to so many people,” said Haider. “And we just want to honor that. The game is more than just a game.”

Britton Burton, who played on the 1996-97 championship team and will play in Friday’s game, said it wasn’t Treglown’s knowledge of the game that he carries with him every day.

“However, I have lived near coach Treglown almost my entire life, and I will remember him most for the way he lived his life off the court. Randy lived by example, was committed to influencing young men in both Scouts and basketball.”

At the end of each season, Treglown took the time to write each of his players a letter that highlighted their strengths and offered them encouragement.

“This is why coach Treglown was a special man,” said Jordan Garritson. "Not only was he our coach for that year, he became another father figure.”

The game will begin at 7 p.m. and is free to spectators, and they have created an event at Treglown.eventbrite.com. There will be a number of activities associated with the gathering, and donations are still being accepted at Jordan Credit Union for the Randy Treglown Memorial Fund. There will be special T-shirts for sale that offer one of the coach's most common sentiments, "Always end on a make."

“He taught us so many things,” said Haider. “He really taught us about life through sports.”

Amy Donaldson covers high school sports, winter and Olympic sports, as well as outdoor and recreation. She contributes to the Deseret News' Reasons to Run blog, as well as a twice-a-month fitness column. She also writes a more ..